This soup is a so warming and soothing to the soul on a cold winter day. Lentils are a great source of plant based protein with a high nutrient density. They are full of fiber, iron, zinc, B vitamins particularly folate.

I always sprout or at least soak any legumes we eat at my house! Sprouting increases nutrient availability and makes stinky beans more digestible. There’s many other benefits to sprouting, but these are two of the big ones. For this batch of soup, I didn’t sprout the lentils, but I did soak them for about 32 hours which is plenty long to reap benefit.

I also make my own vegetable stock with leftover vegetable scraps that I store in the freezer for a cold day. The only vegetables not good for making broth are from cruciferous family (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage….). Today I used carrots, turnip, onion, garlic, leaks, stems from the collard greens, and the very bottom of the celery bulb. Boil water and let simmer for roughly 45 minutes and then strain. Discard solid scraps and save any leftover stock for next time.

​This soup is extremely simple to cook, just put all the ingredients into the crock pot and cook on high for several hours or low for 6-8 hours, stirring periodically. When adding the ingredients, I like to start with all the solids then add the broth last. This helps keep me from getting splashed every time I add a vegetable and it also helps me to get a good solid to liquid ratio in my soup.